Guilty

“They must be right, I am guilty” Jerry thought, sitting in the damp cell. The cell is small, 2x2x2m, the walls are built from enormous stone blocks, with one side barred with thick steel bars. That side opens, they threw him in through there.

“I don’t know what I did, but I always knew I’d do something horrible,” he thought, “it was just a matter of time.”

He kept a journal full of notes like: “Made fire today - father beaten me with a belt - don’t do that anymore.” and “Mother caught me touching myself - she looked very disappointed.” and “Drowned the neighborhood cat - everyone mad,“ and so on... But the beatings and the disappointment never meant much to Jerry, he was trying very hard to understand the rules.

“Hurt no one, unless you are defending someone. Don’t burn stuff, only for warmth in the winter. Don’t take stuff that aren’t yours, even if you won’t get caught...” He recited the rules in his head, they took his journal when they threw him in but he knows them by heart.

“And I didn’t break any of them! It must be a new one! They’ll soon let me out of here like always, and I’ll make a note of my mistake, and I won’t repeat it!“ Sitting in the dark and damp cell thinking hard made him exhausted, and he fell to sleep on the cold stone ground.“Jeremiah Cooper Smith!“ loud voice woke him from his troubled dreams” The town council have reached the decision. For the crime of witchcraft we sentence you to be baptised by fire! The sentence shall be carried out at dawn! Repent and your soul may still go to heaven! Maybe… “

“Please, tell me what I did wrong? “Jerry cried out as they were leaving, but they ignored him. What he did wrong bothered him more than the baptism by fire. They must at least tell him that before the fire. Jerry didn’t fear death, he couldn’t understand what was so scary about it.

The town constables took him to the town square where the angry mob waited. They watched him with hatred in their eyes and they screamed profanities at him but nobody told him what he did wrong. “Jeremiah Connor Smith” executioner read while he was being tied up to a pole “for the crime of witchcraft, you’re to be burned at the stake. Do you have any last words?”

“What did I do wrong” he asked, looking at the crowd. They answered with a cacophony of boos, and a rain of spit.

The executioner shrugged and threw the torch at the pyre below Jerry’s feet. The flames burned high and Jerry was soon engulfed by them screaming till he had breath to scream: “WHAT DID I DO WRONG?”